


Beneath The Skin

by NothingxRemains



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Bonding, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Cute, Fluff, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Rated T for potential violence, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-10-20 04:30:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17615507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NothingxRemains/pseuds/NothingxRemains
Summary: The adventures of Rin and Sesshoumaru.--It started with this. Every time he would go off and return, an anticipation would grow within him and he held his breath, and every time she would press her small weight into his front and he would breathe again, reciprocating her actions with a hand on her head or on her back, his gesture of appreciation.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a random collection of experiences that capture Rin & Sesshomaru's developing relationship during their travels(strictly platonic). There's not really a plot, although it might grow one at some point, it's just pure sweet goodness.

_"Well, maybe I'm a crook for stealing your heart away_  
_Yeah, maybe I'm a crook for not caring for it_  
_Yeah, maybe I'm a bad, bad, bad, bad person_  
_Well, baby, I know."_

_Of Monsters & Men - Love, Love, Love _

 

 

A gentle breeze swept through the field, kissing warm cheeks and playing with silken hair as it passed. Golden eyes peered up sleepily at the great tree he took shelter under, breathing in the fresh air as it danced by. The small hands in his hair paused in their ministrations, and he shifted his gaze to the child they belonged to as she drew a deep breath noisily into her lungs and let it out with a childishly content sigh. When she glanced down at her hands she caught his eyes as he watched her quietly, and smiled at him with a small giggle.

He would never forget the first time he'd seen that smile, though to him it had not been so long ago. The way she had smiled as if he'd given her the sun, with her missing teeth and dirtied face, her eye swollen shut and her garb faded and fraying at the edges, ignorant of the fate that awaited her. And still, she smiled.

He remembered every time she did it, a flash of the sunlit trees and the faded red of her old kimono, there and gone again before he even blinked. He wasn't sure why, this memory significant in a way he could not define, even to himself.

He'd made the mistake, one time, of trying to understand, after he'd spent some time watching over her pluck flowers in a meadow and weave them together. She’d run up to him where he reclined under a tree and beamed, the colorful product of her labor clutched gingerly between her hands and held out for him to see. He stared at it, and then at her, mind still swirling with memories and incomprehension, and after a moment's hesitation, he'd reached past the offering and carefully, cupped his hand over her eye. Her reaction startled him. She'd jumped at his touch, eyelashes fluttering against his palm as she blinked her eyes open and sought out his. Clueless to what she found there, her single eye turned deep and knowing, peering into him with a mysterious wisdom that struck a cord deep inside of him.

It felt like she had touched his soul.

He'd left her in the company of Jaken and A-Un after that, disturbed by the experience. An important revelation had occurred, he knew, and yet understanding failed to reach him. When he returned after a day or two of pondering it and deciding it inconsequential, Rin and Jaken had  run up to him, excited and calling his name.

He supposed it was then, that things started to change. Instead of stopping and smiling at him, as she normally did, she kept going until her small body collided against his, cheek resting on his armor and arms curling around his waist to clutch his obi. He stood frozen in her embrace, musings that he had only just convinced to settle flying into a new turmoil in his mind, vaguely aware of Jaken's jaw dropped in disbelief. A couple beats of silence passed before she raised her head to meet his wide eyes, and said “Welcome back, Sesshomaru-sama.” His heart thumped and he breathed out, and hesitantly, pat her head. Then she smiled her smile and skipped off as if nothing strange had happened, Jaken still spluttering disbelievingly off to the side.

It started with this. Every time he would go off and return, an anticipation would grow within him and he held his breath, and every time she would press her small weight into his front and he would breathe again, reciprocating her actions with a hand on her head or on her back, his gesture of appreciation.

 

* * *

 

At some point, they had wandered under a fruit tree. He hadn't noticed more than their succulent scent, caught up in his musings, when he heard the unmistakeable sound of a stomach growling. He paused in his stride, turning to see her staring up into the foliage. He followed her gaze to the swollen fruit weighing heavily on their branches, round and ripe. Though they were not entirely out of his reach, there were no low hanging branches for Rin to climb her way up to them.

He realized, halfway through, that he could have simply plucked one or two from their stems and passed them to her. But it was not the first thought to occur, as he leaned down and gently scooped her up into the cradle of his arm. She automatically clutched at his mokomoko, eyes wide and startled though they remained determinedly fixated on the nearest fruit, growing larger in their reflection as he drew her higher up until she sat upon the fur over his shoulder. Her hand shifted to settle on top of his head for balance while the other reached out, fingers tightening in his hair as she yanked the peach from its stem with a small bit of difficulty. She glanced at it, and then at him as she determined where to put it, before calling out to Jaken and promptly dropping it on his head, illiciting an outraged cry from the previously quiet sprite. She paid him no mind as she reached for another.

From this close Sesshomaru could hear her heart racing clearly, but she looked neither nervous nor scared at his proximity, body tense under his hand on her legs while she plucked another peach, relaxing and tensing again as she dropped it and reached for another one without bothering to glance down, and he obligingly shifted this way and to bring them into her range. He breathed in deep as she leaned forward, inciting a squeak as she rose with the movement of his shoulders, drawing in the scent of dirt and sweat and sunshine that lingered on her, mixing with the sweetness permeating the air.

At last she exhausted her supply of all the low hanging fruit, eyes lingering upwards as her fingers hesitantly, deliberately, shifted in his hair, relaxing the small tangles she had created there. He glanced up to find her eyes focused on her new task, and when she did not stop he debated with himself before, slowly, letting his eyes fall shut. Her heart thumped but she did not falter, even as her strokes grew longer and her fingers failed to catch on any snags.

She continued for a while longer until he opened his eyes at the sound of her stomaching rumbling again. She pulled away with a surprised look on her face, like she'd forgotten she was even hungry. Though whether it was because she had been content in her ministrations or she was simply forgetful he didn't know, and he carefully lowered her back onto the ground where Jaken was already finishing his second peach, leaving four in a pile on the ground.

Rin hurried to gather her haul while Sesshomaru continued onward like he'd never stopped in the first place, mind stuck on the sensation of her small fingers combing through his hair. He struggled to think of the few people that he had ever allowed such an intimate gesture. His mother, perhaps, when he was still very young. A handful of servants over the years, tasked with his grooming in the mornings, with a comb in place of their fingers, and in the evenings when he bathed. Seldom had he allowed any of them to wash his hair, when he thought about it, as he had disliked the way they handled it. To think that the small child had done such a bold thing without invoking even a sliver of irritation from him was surprising.

Sesshomaru was drawn out of his musings when darkness fell. His ears picked up the sounds of Jaken's quiet muttering to himself, A-Un's even footsteps, Rin's soft, even breathing that indicated she'd fallen asleep atop the dragon's saddle. He supposed since she was already asleep and carried food to last her another day, it would do no harm to keep travelling through the night.


	2. Chapter 2

_"So I think it's best we both forget before we dwell on it,_

_The way you held me so tight_  
_All through the night_  
_'Til it was near morning."_

 

A week passed without incident. It was nearing dusk and the fields of a village could be seen not too far away. There was shouting and sounds of disturbance in the distance, the crackle of fire in his ears and the scent of smoke on the air. He paid it little mind, until his senses caught the distinct scent of fear. He ignored it until the village grew nearer and the scent grew stronger. He paused in his stride and turned back to see A-Un's reigns fall from Rin's frozen fingers as he passed her by, the child frozen where she stood and eyes wide with growing fear, the light of fire dancing in their depths. He followed her gaze to the village to see that some of the huts were on fire, uncouth men riding through the village and assaulting the villagers. They were being raided by bandits, he realized, looking back at Rin again, but he didn't understand what held her so paralyzed. It was no concern of theirs.

“Rin.”

She didn't seem to have heard him, the scent of her fear mounting until it was near unbearable. He sighed in irritation, but he could not simply pass by something that disturbed her so. He walked over to her, stopped just short of touching her. She twitched minutely to his proximity.

“Do you want me to save them?”

A beat of silence. “Save…?” The fear in her eyes became terror as she processed his words, and she abruptly turned and launched herself at him, startling him. “No! No, you mustn't. Please, please, you can't,” she begged, clinging to him. He stared down at the top of her head, perplexed by her reaction. Deciding to get answers out of her later, he leaned down and scooped her up. She immediately nestled into his mokomoko, clutching it with her hands and burying her face in its fur. He turned and continued forward, ignoring A-Un's concerned croon and Jaken's confused babbling as he strode down the path.

The scent of fear still lingered when he stopped for camp hours later. Though she had fallen asleep at some point, she remained tense in his arm, her face pinched in discontent. He tried to set her down but her hands clung fast to his mokomoko until he had to relent, settling down under a tree with a sigh, the child still cradled against his chest. Jaken did not make a fire, the small clearing lit only by the half moon in the sky. Eventually, Rin’s face smoothed and her body relaxed, finally reaching an untroubled sleep.

In the quiet, he puzzled over her reaction from earlier that day. What had she been afraid of? The bandits, undoubtedly. But simply of them? He had initially thought she feared for the villager’s safety, but her response to his offer said otherwise. Had she been afraid for him? Surely she knew a group of mere humans were no match for him, regardless of how many there were. But then, she had not seemed entirely rational. She had bad experience with bandits, clearly--such a thing was not uncommon, after all. But the stench of wolves had been thick when he found her laying lifeless on the road that day. No, she had not been afraid for her own safety but his; someone she had cared about had met their end in such a way, probably long before he had met her.

An erratic heartbeat drew him out of his thoughts, and he looked down at his ward fidgeting in her sleep, eyebrows furrowed, hands gripping and relaxing the fur she pillows her head on. The urge to comfort her came to him, and he felt a sharp ache of irritation when he remembered it was not so easy a task as it once might have been, in the absence of his left arm. Just as he wondered how to work around his own lacking, Rin jolted awake in his lap, her hands shooting out blindly and smacking into the front plate of his armor, frantically feeling out the shape of it, and he realized it was too dark for her to see. Her heart raced and she began to shake, the stench of her fear suddenly overpowering, and she started to cry silently.

She must have thought he was a bandit, blind as she was. She began fighting his arm around her as he tried to think of a solution to this, trying to get away from him. But he was stuck on the sight of her tears, and instinct compelled him. He debated whether to listen to it as he watched her struggle, crying harder as she failed to get away. He gave in, bringing his arm up across her torso and pulling her back.

She froze when his tongue touched her cheek, sucking in hiccuping breaths as he lapped up her tears. He sensed her confusion, but gradually she began to calm at the nonthreatening gesture, and by the time he shifted to her other cheek her hand had come up to touch his face, clumsily tracing the curve of his jaw, the shape of his ear, brushing through his hair.

Finally she had stopped crying, and when the last traces of her tears had been wiped from her face, he drew away.

“Rin.”

She slumped in his arm like her strings had been cut, as he left no doubt who it was that held her, kept her safe. Willing his mokomoko to lengthen, he gently set her down on it in front of him, and she immediately curled toward him, choosing to pillow her head on the knee of his hakama while the rest of her was cushioned by his fur. Still she stared unwittingly at his obi in the darkness, though whether she was no longer tired or feared the idea of another nightmare, he wasn't sure. He set his hand on her head, and after a moment's hesitation, began to come his fingers through her hair. It fell in choppy layers, coarser than his own hair, and held more snags than he cared to deal with, but he didn't stop. He groomed a small area until it was straight and smooth, and though Rin had fallen asleep after a few short minutes, he did not feel inclined to stop.

The sun had not yet risen when Rin began to stir again, drawing the demon lord out of the small trance he'd fallen into. He paused briefly, and the child let out a small hum of contentment when he continued, claws gently skating over the curve of her skull. It was strangely soothing to him--the sight of her so distraught the day before had been more discomfiting than he had prepared for, leaving him unsettled as he watched over her in the night hours. Now the air was crisp with the coming dawn, and the urge to maim had eased, leaving him content with his attendance and more than a little disgruntled that she could affect him so. That the warmth in his chest and the tingling in his fingers could be attributed to nothing more than her simple existence, her easy acceptance of him.

He had always been held by the expectations of others, his own the highest of all. He was respected, and feared, demons and humans, enemies and allies alike looked on, and in their eyes he was cold and power-hungry and terrifying. And he accepted this, expected it, even, for his reputation to precede him. But the idea that she could look at him the way they did, with these expectations and these fears, did not sit right with him. The way that she looked at him now, with happiness and unfailing loyalty and understanding that seemed to supersede even his own understanding of himself, was as it was supposed to be, and the thought of altering that somehow, of betraying her eyes and her smile and her trust, left him with a sense of wrongness.

No, everything was as it should be.


	3. Chapter 3

_"Breathe in, breathe out_   
_Let the human in_   
_Breathe in, breathe out_   
_And let it in."_

_Of Monsters & Men - Human_

 

 

 

Another moon passed. The air grew colder and the air filled with turning leaves as the trees gradually shed their foliage. Rin began to shiver at night, and though she had begun to seek him out most nights since that day, now she sought him out to protect herself from the season's chill, curling into the protection of his fur and his warmth to ward off the cold. He supposed he would have to send her into a human village for supplies soon, as humans supposedly could get sick from such a simple thing. She'd even begun to sniffle in the last day or two.

He altered their course, unbeknownst to his travel companions, until they neared a fairly large village, with walls and guards and a market square easily seen from this distance. Weary of causing her trouble by his mere presence, he halted them just before the trees ended atop the hillside, retrieving a purple pouch of coins from A-Un's saddle, drawing a handful of coins from it and handing them to Rin, which she hesitantly accepted.

“Sessomaru-sama?” she asked, puzzled.

“Go into the village and buy what you need to prepare for winter. We will be here,” he instructed, tucking the small pouch away again. She stared down at the castle walls with apprehension, before steeling herself and nodding, gripping the coins so hard she could feel their edges press into her palm. With a deep breath, she set off. Sesshoumaru watched as she walked determinedly out of the cover of the trees and down the hillside, her heartbeat picking up and anxiety rising, pace slowing as she neared the guards.

Rin passed the guards without incident, heart already thundering as she crossed through the open gateway. She vaguely remembered seeing the market in the center, so she kept walking straight until stalls came into view, fighting the urge to scrutinize every person she passed. It had been a long time since she had been in among other humans, and her previous experience had not been a pleasant one. She was glad her tooth had grown back and she could still see out of both eyes, she thought, reluctantly passing by the food stalls.

What would she need for winter? A blanket? A thicker kimono? _Shoes_? Her face scrunched up automatically at the thought; she _hated_ shoes. But the ground was cold and her lord would probably be displeased if she could not even walk.

In the end she left back the way she came with a thick nagajuban under her orange kosode, thick black legwear and a pair of white tabi under the new brown leather boots that made her feet feel clunky and heavy, although the insides were lined with fur and she could not complain that they did not warm her numbed toes. Over her head and arms was draped a thick wool blanket with simple white stripes adorning its pale blue color, which she held shut across her chest. Tucked into the front of her kosode hid a spare set of tabi and a modest jade comb that her fingers itched to touch. With her last few coins she had bought matching bracelets, woven of simple twine in dual colors, a red-gold and an orange-green, hidden alongside the comb, wishfully thinking that her lord might wear such a thing should she offer it.

The second she passed through the gates she broke into a run, stumbling awkwardly uphill in her new attire. She was breathing hard and already had dirt on her hands and the knees of her new clothes, blanket slipping down her back, when she finally made it back. Sesshoumaru stood waiting at the top as if he had not moved a muscle in her absence. She held still under his assessing gaze, struggling to catch her breath as he reached out and kneaded the edge of her nagajuban, knuckles warm against her neck despite the chill air. He did the same to the blanket bunched at her elbow, testing its thickness and by extension it practicality, she assumed, while he repeated the process with her legwear before relenting with a noncommittal noise low in his throat. 

“Do you feel better?” he asked, golden eyes finding hers again

“Yes, Sesshoumaru-sama. I feel much warmer now, thank you,” she said cheerily, smiling brightly and resisting the urge to hug him. Her lord was the kindest, so considerate of her wants and needs, and she could not be happier.

 

* * *

 

Later that night found them seeking shelter in an empty cave, the wind whistling outside as Jaken and Rin arranged a fire. He had not noticed before when they were travelling, but here in the cave with nothing to observe but his companions, he could not help but notice Rin's strange behavior as she oscillated between staring down at her hands and fidgeting with the part in her kosode, and determinedly not looking in his direction it seemed. Jaken was already asleep against A-Un, who rested between them and the entrance.

“Rin.” she jumped at the sound of his voice, loud compared to the wind and the crackling fire in the otherwise quiet cave. She did not hesitate to meet his eye, at least.

“What else did you buy?” he said, on what he would not admit was a hunch, eyes narrowing as her hand immediately jumped to the part in her kimono almost guiltily.

“Well…” she hedged, eyes darting away. She gave in with a noisy sigh without further prompting, reaching into her kosode again. She drew out a comb, small and curved, glinting a particular shade of jade in the firelight. The sight of it brought memories bubbling to the surface, of all the nights passed running his fingers through her hair, and the single solitary memory of her running her fingers through his. She set it down in her lap, and her hand hesitated in the air for a moment before slowly reaching into her kosode again.

It took him a moment to understand what he was looking at. Two bracelets, clearly, their color questionable in the dim light. For herself? But she would not look so nervous if it were that simple, surely. And the way she held them out towards him, as if in question…

“One of these is for me,” she said, setting one down on top of the comb. The other she continued to hold outstretched, and he was mildly impressed that she did not allow her nerves to show on her face, though her stiff posture and the trepidation in her voice certainly gave it away. “Sesshoumaru-sama, would you…”

The silence stretched as she struggled to finish, and he let it linger for a few strained moments before he had mercy on the hopeful girl, holding his arm out in offer. Her face lit up and she got up to cross the small space, gathering the other bracelet and the comb in her other hand before they fell from her lap. She settled on her knees in front of him, using both hands to carefully guide the small offering over his hand, pulling two beaded strings until it was not quite snug around his wrist, impeding the stripes that rested there. He watched as she fumbled with the other one until it was on her own arm, pulling one string between her teeth until the bracelet was fastened to her liking. While she fiddled with it he reached for the jade comb in her lap, turning it between his clawed fingers, deliberating over it while Rin moved to settle against the wall next to him. Almost reluctantly(he refused to call it nervous, ignored the slight raise in his pulse) he held the comb out to her in offering. She stared at it for a moment, uncomprehending as she took it from him.

He surprised her then, when he turned and shifted until unexpectedly, his head lay in her lap, pillowed on one leg while his hair draped over the other and across the cave floor. She held still in stunned silence above him, eyes wide as she stared at the comb in her hand. She took a deep, steadying breath, and slowly lowered the comb, running its teeth through the silver strands of his hair with the utmost care. He stared upwards as she repeated the motion, ignoring the look of concentration on her face in his periphery. Instead he watched the shadows flicker over the grooves in the cave ceiling, waiting for irritation to bloom so that he might tell her to stop, but it never did. Gradually her hands grew confident in their action, and he let his eyes drift shut, letting the soothing sensation and the scent of her happiness lull him into a shallow slumber.


	4. Chapter 4

_“I'll be the calm,_ _  
_ _I will be quiet,_ _  
_ _Stripped to the bone_   
I wait.”

_Of Monsters & Men - Thousand Eyes _

  


 

Rin, inevitably, did get sick.

She was hopping on a frozen creek, watching the fish swim by underfoot as she carefully meandered across it, keeping pace with Sesshoumaru and Jaken who walked beside it. “I wonder how the fish can keep swimming. I bet the water is _so_ cold, I wonder if it hurts them,” she thought aloud, measuring her steps.

“Of course it doesn't! They're just stupid fish, they don't feel or think anything. And besides they're cold blooded anyway, the probably don't even notice,” Jaken ranted, breaching the bubble of the demon lord's awareness by sheer volume.

Rin looked up. “Cold-blooded? Like--”

Sesshoumaru heard the ice cracking under her weight and lunged to catch her, but he did not make it in time as she fell through the surface with a shrill scream. It was a small mercy that the stream was not any deeper, and that she did not completely disappear beneath the ice. Her screaming tapered off to panicked whimpering as he lifted her out of the water by her wrist. Her complexion was ashening rapidly as he set her on the ground, not unlike dead humans he had seen from time to time.

She was shivering violently, lips and fingertips turning purple and wet clothes hardening in the cold air. Mildly alarmed at the sight, Sesshoumaru scooped her up in his arm and disappeared into the trees, beelining for a cave he'd seen not too far back, the sound of the child's chattering teeth accompanying him and grating on his nerves. It irritated him that humans were so fragile, that Rin was so careless that he had to save her from her own carelessness. At least, that's what he blamed the anxious beating in his heart and the quick in his step on.

It didn't take him to long to find the shelter again, impatient as he was, coming to a stop a good ways in before crouching with the shivering girl still in his hold. He stared down at her in perplexion, casting his memory about in an effort to aid her. A fire would help, but he would not leave her here to suffer alone while he went to gather kindle, he would have to wait until Jaken caught up. But what to do in the meantime?

His mind recalled the nights of early winter before he had bid her to buy supplies, when she would seek his warmth to ward off the cold.

He hesitated, staring down at her closed eyes and tense face. Could she die from this, if he did not aid her? He looked toward the mouth of the cave, willing his useless servant to appear. Her violent trembling did not cease, and she sucked in shallow, frantic breaths. Humans could die from anything; she could not afford his hesitation.

Gingerly he set her down and began stripping her out of her layers, tugging off her boots and socks, one soaked and one still dry, untying her obi and peeling off the outer layer of her kimono. Her comb clattered to the ground, and he reminded himself to collect it later, paying no heed for the time being. He stopped when she was down to her nagajuban, uncertain of crossing that barrier. The beaded strings of his bracelet trailed over her as his hand paused with indecision.

With an angry sigh he sat back, shrugging off his mokomoko and untying his obi with quick, practiced motions. He snarled quietly under his breath as he struggled with the absence of his other arm, unbuckling his armor and carelessly letting it drop onto the ground with a loud clatter.

Hastily he shrugged off his haori, stripping Rin of her of her remaining clothes and bundling her in the rich material. He pulled his nagajuban loose from his hakama and enclosed her inside it, her chilled face pressing against the column of his throat, the cold already seeping through the thin barrier of his haori. Shifting his legs to support her weight, he drew his mokomoko back up to wrap around her and settled back against the cave wall.

He was…

He was _not_ worried.

He waited.

This was how Jaken found him some ten minutes later, not even noticing the child cradled to his chest in the dim light of the cave. He rambled pointlessly about Sesshoumaru taking off, and his struggle to find him again, and how stupid Rin was, and how pathetic humans were, completely lost in his own little world until Sesshoumaru snapped at him.

“Jaken.”

“Y-yes, Sesshoumaru-sama.”

“Gather wood for a fire.”

“Yes of course, right away Sesshoumaru-sama!” he replied dutifully, rushing off without another word. Outside, as he gathered materials, he wondered what his lord could possibly want a fire for.

Sesshoumaru was once again left alone with the sounds of the unfortunate child he held close, her breathing no longer desperate and her heartbeat no longer a weak, fluttering thing. It beat even and almost steady as she shifted from unconsciousness to mere slumber, no longer feeling frigid against his skin.

For perhaps the first time, though surely not the last, he wondered at the wisdom of letting a human child travel with him. She was tiny and delicate, and defenseless, and Sesshoumaru drew many enemies that sought to test his strength, if he did not seek them out first. To say she was no perfectly safe in his company was to imply that he was not capable of protecting her, but he could not be with her every second of every day, and Jaken was practically useless against all but the weakest of demons. At last he decided that as long as he could protect her(and that went without question), he would keep her with him.

When Jaken returned, Sesshoumaru glared silently at the back of his head, encouraging the imp to hasten in completing his task, fumbling with the sticks and sweating nervously until at last he was ready to set it aflame with his staff. The fire blazed to life and lit up the cave, but when the servant turned to his lord, he nearly cried out in disbelief.

Surely.. surely he was hallucinating? His lord was as unkempt as Jaken had ever seen him, bare of his battle armour and his royal robe, curled up on the cave floor like some commoner with his mokomoko haphazardly tucked around him. And in the center of it all was that stupid human girl, face barely peeking out between the folds of his lord's nagajuban, skin clammy and hair sticking limply to her forehead.

Jaken stood there sputtering in shock, unable to hold on to one thought long enough to form a sentence. Sesshoumaru gazed at him with cold eyes, as always.

“You appear to have trouble speaking, Jaken.” He said, daring him to speak his mind. He heard the warning, he did, but he just could not believe…!

“M-m-my lord! To think you would go so far for a human child! But why?”

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed dangerously, and Jaken gulped, remembering himself.

“Are you questioning me?”

“N-no, my lord, of course not,” Jaken said nervously.

“You chose to follow me, and I allowed it so long as you prove yourself useful. You would do well to remember that.”

“Yes, my lord,” he replied mulishly, dropping his gaze to the ground.

A beat of silence, and Sesshoumaru looked away dismissively. “Dry her clothes by the fire, she will need something to wear when she wakes.”

Jaken looked around and spotted the pile of wet clothes that Rin had been wearing earlier. Puzzled, Jaken looked at the human child sheltered in his lord's embrace. After a few moments, he noticed the bright red sleeve of his haori leading inside his nagajuban. He bit his tongue until his green face turned red and did as he was told.

 

 

* * *

 

 

The fire had been burning for nearly an hour when he realized that Rin seemed to be becoming too warm, her cheek sticking to his skin. He removed her from his kimono and set her down in his lap. Her face was flushed, though she still seemed clammy and her complexion sickly, and her scent was wrong. She was breathing hard again and her heartbeat was too quick and unsteady, and his irritation, which had settled over the past hour, rose sharply. What was wrong _now_? Before she had been too cold, now she was too warm? Was she still in danger of dying?

He loosened his haori around her and blew cold air on her face and neck. She shivered and curled into him, and kept shivering like she was still freezing. He resisted the urge to growl in frustration. He would wait until morning and give her a chance to recover on her own before he gave in and sought outside assistance.

Jaken sat and watched his master practically fret over the girl, disturbed. Eventually, he fell asleep, and Sesshoumaru (diligently) kept watch over his charge.

And he waited.


	5. Chapter 5

_ “Open my chest and colour my spine _ _   
_ _ I'm giving you all _ _   
_ _ I'm giving you all _ _   
_ _ Swallow my breath _ _   
_ _ And take what is mine _ _   
_ _ I'm giving you all _ _   
_ __ I'm giving you all.”

_ Of Monsters & Men - Wolves Without Teeth _

  
  
  
  


Throughout the night, Rin half-woke several times calling his name and complaining about the cold despite her feverish skin, mumbling and incoherent. The sky had not been lit for long, Jaken still asleep on the other side of the cave, when her scent became normal and her breathing evened out again. The unnatural flush faded from her cheeks and her skin returned to normal color. At least he would not have to go through the trouble of seeking human aid.

He noticed, now that he wasn't so closely monitoring her condition, that her hair was a mess. It was matted and wild and flat on one side, and it bothered him. He remembered the comb that has fallen out the day before and reached for it. He held it almost clumsily between his clawed fingers but persisted, and began to groom her hair. It occurred to him that he had not done this yet, since she purchased it a half moon ago. He had permitted her to use it on him that first night in the cave, and another night when he had leaned against Ah-Un in the night hours and she had set on its saddle behind him, requesting it after she finished her own hair. Several nights he had spent running his fingers through her black tresses, as had become commonplace for them, but he had yet to use the comb as she always had it in her possession. 

Smoothing out the tangles in her was short work with the small instrument. He had not been doing it long when she stirred and opened her eyes, peering up at him blearily in the weakly lit cave. “ ‘shoumaru-sama…?” she mumbled. 

He continued to run its teeth through the tangles as he spoke to her. “Rin. How do you feel?”

“..m’ tired. What happened?” She asked sleepily, closing her eyes again.

“You fell in a river.” He said, after a long pause.

“I did? I was.. oh, I was walking on the ice..” she trailed off and was quiet for several minutes, and he was sure that she'd fallen back asleep, but she must have simply dozed off. Then she shifted and pulled his haori tighter around her, and let out a content sigh. “Mm… smells like ‘shoumaru-sama…”

He didn't ask what he smelled like to her, but she somehow heard the unspoken question anyway. “Like a thunderstorm… trees, and fur, and warm, and safe…” She let out another content sigh, nuzzling her face into his stomach. Sesshoumaru wondered what that meant. What would ‘safe’ smell like? Perhaps it was simply the emotion she associated with him in general, which gave him a strange feeling he did not care to examine. Instead, he thought about her scent. 

Ordinarily, she had the ever present traces of sunlight and dirt, sometimes the fragrance of grass or flowers clinging to her kimono. She smelled of Ah-Un, and lately she had begun to carry his scent as well, as he began to touch her  more freely. It soothed some primal part of him to smell their scents mingling on her skin, to follow her like a ward against certain dangers. And at the same time, he felt the urge to smother her in it, to touch her and bathe her in it until she wore it like a second skin, as readily as if it were her own scent. He wondered if that was not a deciding factor in what he had done the night before, wrapping her in his clothes and holding her close with only a single, thin barrier separating them, grooming her hair and thoroughly scent marking her.

He wondered. 

Another hour passed before she finally began to stir properly, yawning and rubbing her eyes, drawn awake by a pleasant smell. A fire backlit the cave wall behind her lord, who came into focus above her, looking down at her intently.

“Rin. Eat.” he said quietly, holding up a cooked fish in his hand. She stared at it dumbly. Eat? She didn't really feel hungry, in fact she kind of wanted to go back to sleep, but if her lord wanted her to eat then she would. She reached out, but instead of simply taking the stick the fish was speared on from him, she wrapped her little fingers around his knuckles and drew it closer until she could take a bite out of it. Her eyes fell half lidded again, hardly aware of her actions as she chewed, missing the strange look that crossed Sesshoumaru's face. 

It was as she was finishing her meal that she began to realize something was amiss. Her clothing was much softer and silkier than her usual attire, wrapped around her more like a blanket than a proper kosode. She looked down, and for a minute struggled to understand what she was seeing. 

Her arm was bare where it stuck out of the material, white with red flowers that looked awful familiar. She paused mid-chew. Sesshoumaru-sama's haori? She glanced at his chest and stared stupidly at his nagajuban. She swallowed absently as she attempted to connect the dots. 

Her eyes slowly grew larger as understanding dawned on her. Sesshoumaru-sama had lended her his pretty haori. He had combed her hair. He was feeding her. He was taking care of her. He was  _ caring for her _ . 

Her face was awestruck when she finally looked at him, eyes wide as saucers. Looking into them, he realized what she had in a matter of minutes what he had not the whole night. He had taken care of her. This was not simply protecting her from passing dangers, or making sure her needs were met. This was well beyond that, and he had not even realized. 

Involuntarily, he averted his eyes from her unwavering stare, his face warming. She was quiet for a long minute, before he heard a sniffle, and risked a glance at her. Her head was bowed and her hands were curled into his undershirt, and he smelled salt. He stared at the top of her head. Was she  _ crying _ ? 

“Thank you, Sesshoumaru-sama,” she said softly. She raised her head and looked into his confused face, and she was smiling, even as tears glided down her cheeks. She looked…

“Rin is so  _ happy _ . No one has ever cared before, Rin was always alone before she met Sesshoumaru-sama. No one has ever been as kind to Rin as Sesshoumaru-sama.”

Her words made Sesshoumaru's chest  _ ache _ . It was an intense feeling, hearing those words, looking at her smiling, tear-stained face, and her eyes, full of joy and adoration and something he could not put words to. And he had no words, so he held her a little closer instead, willing the feeling in his chest to go away as he breathed out harshly. She rested her cheek on his chest, where she could hear his heart racing clearly, and he let her.

They stayed that way a long while, and simply breathed, until both their hearts calmed and her tears had dried, until the fire had died and Sesshoumaru heard Jaken draw near. 

Eventually, Rin would change back into her own clothes, and Sesshoumaru would do the same. Rin and Jaken would bicker, and Sesshoumaru would set off while Jaken struggled to make Ah-Un obey him. And Rin would walk at his side, more sedately than normal--still tired from the events of the day before, and feeling more cherished than she ever had in her life--and Sesshoumaru would walk a little slower than he usually did, and she would hum and smile knowingly as they continued their adventure.

Yes, everything was as it should be.


	6. Chapter 6

_ “And we are far from home,  _

_ but we're so happy. _ _   
_ _ Far from home, all alone,  _

_ but we're so happy.” _

_ Of Monsters & Men - From Finner _

__  
  


 

The arrival of the new season announced itself with a spring shower. Trees grew into their new foliage and riots of color dotted the sides of the road and and covered whole fields, much to Rin's delight. At the first sign of warmer weather she immediately forewent her blanket and footwear, throwing herself into the first meadow they came across. Unwittingly she drew their party to a halt, for Sesshoumaru could not continue on in the face of such enthusiasm. 

In a way he was thankful for the rain, as the scent of petrichor dampened the unpleasant perfume of the flora, making it more tolerable to sit amongst them beneath the shelter of a tree. Rin ran in circles with ecstatic laughter, letting out a small shriek when she slipped on the wet petals but still giggling even as she sat up again. Apparently deciding that this was as good a spot as any, she began to peruse the selection of colorful blooms around her. 

Sensing no demonic aura in the immediate area, Sesshoumaru let the sound of the rain lull him into a shallow trance. Rin's voice accompanied it as she began to hum to herself, and the demon lord let his eyelids drift shut and allowed the soothing noise wash over him. 

Sesshoumaru did not sense Rin's approach until he felt small hands on his wrist, pulling him out of the light slumber he’d apparently fallen into. His gaze met the chain of flowers hanging around the girl's neck first, not a single one of them the same color as another. He felt a tug on his wrist and he looked further down to see a small pile of white daisies on his thigh, where Rin pulled from as she wove them through the thin threads of his orange-green bracelet. It occurred to him, in the daylight, that they were the colors of her kosode. Like her mark on him, as if claiming him. He wondered if it was intentional, as he shifted his gaze to her bracelet, an interlacing of red-purple. Like his markings, he realized, after a moment of thought. As if tying them together--announcing to anyone who might noticed that they belonged to each other. Or had she simply given him wrong one that night, in the dim light of the fire? 

He watched as she wove a third daisy into his bracelet. “Rin.” 

She jerked her head up to meet his gaze, grinning at him sunnily as though it might distract him from what she was doing. 

“Sesshoumaru-sama! May I braid your hair?” 

He paused at her nonsequisitor, narrowing his eyes down at her smiling face. She remained completely unfazed, looking up at him innocently. Perhaps he had been allowing her too much leniency, lately. 

He looked off into the distance. “...do what you want.”

She immediately flew into motion. “Kay!” She paused at his side. “Um… Sesshoumaru-sama…” He glanced her to see her staring intently at the tree behind him.

A beat passed. The demon lord in question let out a near-inaudible sigh and obligingly shifted so that his back was to her, the tree now to his right. He could practically feel the child beaming behind him. “Thank you, Sesshoumaru-sama!”

He found himself facing the road where a miserable Jaken stood by a resting Ah-Un, taking shelter under another tree. He heard clothing shift behind him moments before Sesshoumaru felt a gentle tugging on his hair. 

He glanced down to find the small pile of daisies still on his leg, although one or two had fallen with his movement. He had never been fond of flowers. Although their aroma wasn't unbearably pungent, it was a decidedly unpleasant perfume that made him feel the urge to do something so mundane as sneeze, a display of weakness that bothered him greatly. It was a dilemma he had found himself facing more frequently since Rin had joined them.

A pressure on his back drew him out of his thoughts. He felt knuckles brush the back of his ear as Rin stood on her tiptoes to reach for the strands there. Apparently she was doing something more intricate than a simple braid, leaning on his back to reach higher up. She began humming under her breath as she leaned away.

After a while, the humming stopped again. Despite this, her hands were ceaseless in their tugging and weaving, pausing briefly here and there while she considered her next move, he supposed.

“Sesshoumaru-sama?”

He didn't answer, but that had never stopped her before. Expectedly, she didn't pause for very long, although her voice was unusually quiet. “Do you have a home, Sesshoumaru-sama?”

The demon lord stilled in surprise, tilting his head just the slightest bit, strands catching in her small hands. 

“Rin thinks she had a home once, when she was very small. And a mother, and a father, and a… a brother, maybe.”

She stopped for a minute, and he could tell that she had abandoned the comb and was simply running her fingers through the ends of his hair. He thought that maybe she had abandoned this sudden line of thought.

“But then…” Her voice was strained.

A memory came to him then, unbidden, not for the first time. 

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Her hands fell still. Sesshoumaru looked over his shoulder and met her surprised gaze, before she glanced down, looking quietly pleased. She fiddled with his hair a little more, glancing around as if in search of something before stopping as something seemingly occurred to her. She hesitated, before slowly reaching for her own hair, and giving the ponytail that sat there a little tug. Sesshoumaru felt a not-unfamiliar sensation in his chest as he watched her hair fall loose from the position it had rigidly held for so long. She tied the small orange band in his hair with a decisive tug before finally letting the silver strands fall from her fingers.

Deciding that she was done, Rin wiggled her way between the tree and her lord's arm, leaning on neither as she settled between the roots. Sesshoumaru observed this silently, an almost apprehensive anticipation coiling within him as he waited to see if she would speak again.

“...they were killed in a village raid. My brother and I were playing outside when the screaming started. I remember runnin inside and mother telling us to hide, and stay quiet no matter what. I was hiding under the floorboards in the main room. They caught her, and my brother when he tried to run for the door.” Her voice was mostly steady,  almost as if she was speaking of someone else, if not for the cracking in her voice. She fell silent for a moment, shoulders hunching as she shrunk in on herself.

“ _ Rin was so scared,” _ she whispered.

Sesshoumaru gave in and put his arm around her, drawing her into his side. She immediately curled into him, resting her head against his fur and clutching at his hakama. He wondered if she had ever told that to anyone else. Considering that she had been mute when they first met, he doubted it. Tears gathered in her eyes but she squeezed them shut and determinedly did not let them fall. 

The rain had stopped, and they sat in silence for a while. 

“...I have a home. In the western region,” he said, eventually, when Rin had calmed down. She fiddled with the daisies she had left on his leg, looking up at him when he spoke. 

“The western…? Where are we?”

“The southern region.”

“Oh. Is it far away?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” She sounded slightly dejected. He considered her tone for a moment.

“...I have not been home for a very long time.”

He could hear her silent question, though she did not ask him aloud. He considered his response anyway.

“Before he died, my father thought I was unfit to inherit his legacy. I felt the need to prove myself, I suppose. So I left.”

She pondered that quietly for minute, although she seemed to sense that it was a sensitive topic. He felt irritated just thinking about it.

“You don't have any other family?” she asked. 

“My mother,” he answered reluctantly.

“Oh.” 

“...and a half brother,” he said even more reluctantly, feeling compelled to give her the absolute truth in light of her honesty, however much it aggravated him.

“Hm." She wondered what half-brother meant, but decided not to ask. Maybe she'd ask Jaken later. "You don't speak to them?”

“No.”

“You don't miss them, Sesshoumaru-sama?”

“No.”

“Hm.” She began plucking the petals from the daisy she held as she contemplated this. 

“When you leave, do you miss me?” she asked.

A number of conflicting things jumped to the forefront of his mind in response to this, and he held them all back. Did he? Certainly not in the beginning, although it had been quite some time since he had left her for more than a few hours. There was more than one answer to this question, but Sesshoumaru, even in the privacy of his own mind, was not sure what the correct one was. It should have been no.

...shouldn't it? 

She began humming again in response to his silence, and wandered off at some point to play with the flowers again while he stared off into the distance, turning the question over in his mind.

Eventually the scent of a distant thunderstorm carried on the wind, rousing him. He drew to his feet.

“Rin.”

She paused in making the chain necklace she had started and looked over to her lord as he stood. She took a second to admire her handiwork as the wind played with his hair, the red and purple flowers traveling down the center braid contrasting nicely with the fine curtain of white-silver. Smaller, unadorned braids accentuated it on either side, already coming loose at the ends. She had thought that it would have been a shame to bind up all that pretty hair, and settled for decorating it instead. She was quite proud of it. 

Rin realized that he was walking towards the road, and that she would have to catch up if she did not want to be left behind. She quickly climbed to her feet and ran after him, carelessly abandoning all the flowers that fell from her lap. In passing thought, she wondered if he ever  _ would _ leave her behind without coming back for her. She dismissed the thought, leaving it to sit among the flowers as she ran after her lord.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure what happened to this chapter, honestly. It put up a fight here and there, but I finished it and it is by far the longest chapter yet so... enjoy?

__ "And as the world comes to an end  
I'll be here to hold your hand  
'Cause you're my king and I'm your lion-heart." 

_ Of Monsters & Men - King & Lionheart _

 

 

They hadn't been travelling for long when Sesshoumaru stopped in the middle of the path. Ah-Un and Rin stopped as well, looking at his back in question. Jaken continued on, muttering to himself until he collided into his master's leg and bounced off, working himself into a frenzy, not that the lord seemed to notice.

A harsh breeze blew over them and Sesshoumaru leapt into the air as a lesser demon suddenly appeared and threw itself at him with a hissing roar. The demon lord met it half way and easily sliced through it with ease.

He heard a small sound of dismay and, alert as he was, his attention snapped toward it. Rin was looking towards him, and he followed her gaze to see a small red flower twirling downwards behind him. Unthinkingly he snatched it from the air as he landed, examining it as the two halves of the demon fell to ground unnoticed.

The small bloom looked exactly like the ones from the meadow they had just left, and carried Rin's scent, and even his own. Had she…  _ Had she put flowers in his hair?  _ And to think that he hadn't even noticed. But he recalled the look on her face as it had come loose, saddened to see her work come undone. He looked up from where he held its stem between his fingers to see her watching him. 

Perhaps she was more clever than he gave her credit for, he thought as he walked towards her, if she had managed such a thing without him even realizing it. She watched him as he came closer, still holding the flower, looking increasingly guilty as he did, until he came to a stop right in front of her. Now she wouldn't meet his eye, looking off to the side with her hands clasped behind her back. He was almost amused, among the number of other things she'd managed to invoke within him, as she always seemed to do with the simplest of actions.

Dirt crunched under his boot as he knelt down in front of her, while she continued to look away. She barely noticed when he touched her, feeling her hair shift the slightest bit and something touch her ear. Her eyes jumped to the demon lord's, gazing at her intently, making her heart thump. After a moment he looked away and stood, turning away from her. She stared after him as he began walking again,  hesitantly reaching up. Soft petals crumpled slightly beneath her fingers, surprising her. Realizing what had just happened and not knowing quite what it meant, although she knew it was something important, her face warmed and her little heart pitter pattered, and she smiled to herself as she followed after him.    
  


Sesshoumaru contemplated the idea of finding shelter when the wind shifted, carrying the scent of nearby demons. He monitored them as they drew close to the treeline on either side. He had just been about to call to Rin when a familiar scream filled the air. Sesshoumaru threw himself toward it without second thought. 

Rin had gotten hungry and decided to forage within eye's view of the road, searching the shrubbery and the trees for food when something had coiled around her ankle. She was suddenly airborne, her instinct of fearful silence long since overridden as she screamed, less out of fear and more because she knew instinctively that her savior would follow the sound. 

Her shrill voice was cut off when the coils grew larger around her and squeezed her middle, forcing the air from her lungs. She looked up to find a demon staring hungrily down at her, a facsimile of a human woman with the lower body of a large serpent, dark green scales glinting dully as they coiled around her, drawing her deeper into the woods. She might have been beautiful, except that her face was grotesquely deformed, her mouth opening impossibly wide and fangs longer than Rin's fingers framing her forked tongue. It flicked out to lick her cheek and she shivered in disgust as saliva dripped down her cheek. 

The demon suddenly looked over her, and Rin saw Sesshoumaru standing among the trees ahead, piercing eyes bright and menacing in the half light. 

The woman holding her chuckled. “Was this one yours? I'm sure you won't miss her. It's been some time since I've had such a tender meal…” The demon leaned closer, close enough that the tip of one fang nicked her cheek. Rin jerked at the touch, creating a shallow gash all the way down her cheek. 

A deep, rumbling snarl ripped through the trees, all the hairs on the back of her neck raising to attention as the very air seemed to tremble. She heard something slice through the air, and in the next moment she was tumbling to the ground, chunks of the demon that had held her captive raining to the ground around her in a flash of light. She recognized it as her lord's light whip, shortly before it disappeared. 

She sat there dumbly for a minute, staring at the gory demon bits surrounding her. Dimly she was aware of the blood dripping down her cheek, and the sound of grass rustling nearby before she was being picked up like a doll and carried away from the carnage. 

They didn't go far before they stopped, but she wasn't put down again. Instead, he sat down with her in his lap, and she became aware of a quiet rumbling deep in his chest. Blinking out of her stupor, she glanced up. 

His eyes were a deep, ominous red, wide and menacing as they stared into hers. She had seen them only once before, many moons ago, but they had not been nearly so close then.

She recalled the angry snarl she had heard earlier, when the demon lady had cut her. Reaching up, she touched her cheek, causing the dull throbbing flared to life with a stinging, burning pain, and she flinched away from her own hand. The growling rose sharply for a moment before settling again, and she looked back up.

His eyes were fixated on her cheek now, and she suddenly noticed the deep, ocean blue amidst the bright red, so unlike the iridescent gold she'd become so familiar with. She was so distracted by this that she almost didn't notice him leaning in, drawn toward her injury, still oozing fresh blood. She feared for a moment, an instinctive reaction to protect her wound,  before the brief glimpse of a memory flashed in her mind's eye--the sensory memory of a gentle touch, lapping away her tears. 

She closed her eyes. 

He started just below the gash. Her cheek stung as he ran long paths along it, running a flat line across the open wound over and over again, and her face scrunched up in pain as she struggled to keep quiet and still. Eventually, it didn't hurt so much, and she was sure it had stopped bleeding as well. The broad strokes turned turned to small, gentle licks, cleaning up what was left. 

The growling had long since gone quiet, and when he pulled away she saw that his eyes had returned to normal, fixed to her with an unreadable look. She returned his gaze steadily, and they sat quietly for a minute. Then she thought of something.

“Sesshoumaru-sama?” He blinked. “Sesshoumaru-sama, why do your eyes change?” she asked.

“...This is not my true form,” he said, after a moment. He was surprised that she did not seem in the least bit frightened. Then again, considering she had seen at least this much the very first time they'd met, and she'd approached him despite not knowing then if he would tear her to pieces or not, perhaps it was not so surprising. She certainly had no reason to fear him now.

“Huh? Not your--Rin has never seen Sesshoumaru-sama’s true form?” 

“No.” 

She made a sound of disbelief. “But why not?” Before he could respond, she spoke again. “Wouldn't it be more comfortable? Rin thinks so. Doesn't it take… energy or something to stay like this? If this is not the way you're meant to be.”

She was raising questions he had never thought about. He resisted the urge to shake his head; he would not start thinking about these things, lest he get confused about things he already knew. 

“If this was not the way I was meant to be, I would not be able to take this form. It requires little effort to maintain. Remaining in my other form is inconvenient.” 

When he glanced back at her, she was staring at him unseeingly, eyes unfocused as she absorbed this information. She hadn't thought about it that way, although she was sure he would find a way to do things he wasn't meant to if he really wanted to. But inconvenient? That didn't sound right.

“What does Sesshoumaru-sama look like?” she asked, focusing on him again. He looked away.

“...it would frighten you.”

“No way!” she said vehemently, surprising him. He turned back to her to see her gazing up at him fiercely, eyes shining bright. 

“Sesshoumaru-sama could never scare Rin. Never!” He stared down at her determined face, slightly baffled and a little miffed. Though he was sure his face betrayed no emotion, she spoke as if it was plain to see. “Sesshoumaru-sama is strong and amazing and kind. Sesshoumaru-sama would never hurt Rin.” She said it with absolutely zero doubt, unwavering as she held his gaze, which openly showed surprise at her declaration. A small part of him felt as though he should rebuke her for such a bold statement, but he could not. She was right, and they both knew it. For the most part.

He looked away again. “...I am not kind.”

A beat of silence. She did not miss the fact that he had not argued with the rest of it, so she let it be and hunkered down in his lap, leaning back against his mokomoko. He curled his arm around her. After she got settled, she spoke quietly into his chest plate. “Before Rin found Sesshoumaru-sama, Rin was always alone. Rin was always hungry, and the villagers were always mean, throwing rocks and yelling and chasing Rin away. Sesshoumaru-sama has never done any of those things, but has provided Rin with clothes and protection and…” she trailed off. A minute passed, and he was sure that she would not speak again.

“And?”

She hesitated, not looking at him. “Rin does not remember what it's like to have a family,” she started quietly, fiddling with the tassle on his armor. “But Rin thinks that... Sesshoumaru-sama is like Rin's family now.” She fell silent again, fidgeting fingers betraying her nerves at her confession.

Outwardly, Sesshoumaru did not move, but his internal response was a riot of things that took him a minute to push down and sort through. He pushed aside the part that outright refused the claim(she was a human! He was a demon! He was a noble of the highest degree, and she was but an orphan!)--he had grown to accept her importance to him, and with this understanding of himself, he considered the merit of her words.

It was not unlike what he felt, he supposed. Although his own experience with what was considered ‘family’ was incomparable to what they shared. His mother was distant by her own natural disposition, his father had been even more so by the time he had died. Inuyasha was… it was better not to even think of that disgrace at a time like this. 

Rin was different. She was closer to him than he had been to anyone in his hundreds of years of life. He looked out for her, and she tended to him in her own small ways, and allowed him to look at things in a new light as he never had before. He did not know what it was like to have a daughter, or even a younger sister, but to even think of her with these labels was unsatisfying, and they weren't really family anyway. He supposed that neither of them really even knew what family was supposed to be like.

It is hours later, after they had regrouped with Jaken and found (yet another) cave to take shelter in, after Sesshoumaru has cleared the demons out from inside it, that he reaches this point of understanding. The fire was crackling and the storm was howling fiercely outside the mouth of the cave. Rin had not long ago come over to unbraid his hair, setting the strands back to rights with her little comb. Beside him sat the five flowers that had been in his hair, joined by the sixth that she removed from her own hair and set against the wall together. Dutifully, she crawled over to his arm and took his wrist in her hand and started pulling the white flowers loose. Already the blooms had wilted and the petals were limp only a half-day after being plucked, so he he appreciated that she was removing them, although he was not sure why. Perhaps out of consideration for him? He certainly did not like the idea of dead flowers in his hair, at any rate. 

“I don't suppose either of us know what a family is supposed to be like,” he said, as she worked on the last of the flowers and he considered the meaning of the bracelets again. 

She paused, surprised maybe, before going back to work untying her knot. She could just rip the stem, he thinks idly, watching her. She smiled a small smile without looking away from her task, and he wondered what she knew that he did not. 

“Shall we find out together, Sesshoumaru-sama?” she asked at last, looking up at him, her back to the fire, fingertips lingering on the skin of his wrist. She rested his hand face-up and put her small hand in his palm, leaving it there, giving him the choice. He stared down at her, considering it, considering her, and all that she was worth to him. In the end, it was not so difficult a choice. 

He closed his fingers around hers, and she smiled.


End file.
